Borel Localization for a Circle Action

Abstract

This chapter explores Borel localization for a circle action. For a circle action, the Borel localization theorem says that up to torsion, the equivariant cohomology of an S1-manifold is concentrated on its fixed point set and that the isomorphism in localized equivariant cohomology of the manifold and its fixed point set is a ring isomorphism. This is clearly an important result in its own right. Moreover, since the fixed point set is a regular submanifold and is usually simpler than the manifold, the Borel localization theorem sometimes allows one to obtain the ring structure of the equivariant cohomology of an S1-manifold from that of its fixed point set. The chapter demonstrates this method with the example of S1 acting on S2 by rotations.